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University  of  California  •  Berkeley 


THE  MORMON  MENACE 


THE  MORMON  MENACE 


A  DISCOURSE 


BEFORE  THE 


WEST  EDUCATION '  COMMISSION 

ON  ITS  FIFTH  ANNIVERSARY 
AT    CHICAGO    NOVEMBER    15    1885 


GEORGE  WHITFIELD   PHILLIPS 

n 

PASTOR  OF  PLYMOUTH  CHURCH 


WORCESTER   MASSACHUSETTS 

MDCCCLXXXV 


11  There    is    an    accursed    thing  in  the   midst  of 
thee  O  Israel.       Neither    will    I    be    with    you    any 

more    except    ye    destroy    the    accursed from 

among  "you." — JOSHUA   7:12,    13. 

"  Spare    thy    people    O     Lord,    and    give    not 
thine  heritage  to  reproach." — JOEL  2:17. 


63 

it 


Pf  3 


DISCOURSE. 


The  first  of  these  writings  affirms  the  loss  of  divine  favor 
to  whatever  scheme  of  colonization  or  state -building  that 
attempts  to  carry  by  covering  up  a  great  iniquity.  The  brill- 
iant opening  of  Joshua's  campaign  for  the  possession  of  the 
land  was  checked  by  the  bad  faith  of  one  man  in  trying  to 
make  gain  out  of  something  God  had  given  over  to  destruc- 
tion. No  more  success  against  the  enemy  till  the  sin  of  Achan, 
his  greed  for  the  spoils,  was  avenged. 

The  forbidden  thing  in  the  midst  of  the  camp  of  our  New 
West  cluster  of  coming  states,  indexed  by  this  occasion  as 
with  burning  finger-point,  is  the  Mormon  menace. 

The  second  writing  named  is  a  patriotic  prayer,  good  for 
all  time  when  any  scourge,  like  locusts  to  the  oriental  farmer, 
has  smitten  the  land.  "  Spare  Thy  people  O  Lord,  and  give 
not  thine  heritage  to  reproach."  No  sentiment  is  more  deeply 
imbedded  in  the  history  of  our  country,  starting  at  Plymouth 
Rock  and  carried  westward  by  the  early  migrations,  than  that 
our  splendid  public  domain  is  a  sacred  trust.  These  vast  prai- 
ries, fat  bottom  lands,  mountains  packed  with  treasure,  have 
ever  been  esteemed  by  the  devout  as  a  divine  heritage.  When, 
therefore,  any  part  of  the  country  is  menaced  with  moral  evil, 
it  concerns  all  the  rest  to  come  to  the  relief  of  the  exposed 
point.  The  body  politic,  the  family,  our  common  Christianity 
have  all  been  infected  by  the  poison  of  polygamy. 

The  morals  of  Salt  Lake  are  felt  by  the  cities  of  the  inte- 
rior and  the  East.  The  life  of  our  people  is  so  intertwined  by 
trade  and  travel  and  social  sympathies  that  moral  isolation  is 
impossible.  Any  part  of  our  common  country  tainted  with  a 


system  so  repulsive  in  itself,  and  freighted  with  mischief  to  a 
whole  group  of  future  states,  as  that  which  has  fastened  its 
cancerous  roots  on  the  New  West  cannot  be  innocently  left 
alone.  The  destiny  of  those  states  is  wrapped  up  with  our 
own. 

Patriotism  and  piety  alike  join  in  the  passionate  cry, 
"  Spare  Thy  people  O  Lord,  and  give  not  thine  heritage  to 
reproach." 

The  New  West  Education  Commission,  now  entering 
on  its  sixth  year  of  beneficent  work  with  gratifying  omens  of 
enlarging  power  and  popular  confidence,  is  the  practical  em- 
bodiment of  this  prayer.  Its  origin  was  as  timely  as  its  man- 
agement has  been  to  the  credit  of  the  intelligence  and  piety  of 
the  brethren  who  have  given  it  a  home  in  this  metropolis  on 
the  lakes.  This  society  is  both  an  index  of  the  vitality  of  the 
churches  of  the  interior,  and  a  happy  bond  uniting  the  eastern 
members  of  the  Congregational  household  with  their  younger 
sisters  here.  It  has  made  the  people  aware  of  a  great  need,  and 
has  fairly  captured  not  a  few  of  our  most  intelligent  givers,  by  its 
adroit  employment  of  the  Christian  school  to  bar  the  further 
spread  of  the  Mormon  delusion.  It  has  been  said  in  regretful 
humor  that  "the  heroic  epoch  of  missions  is  past."  Our 
work  is  the  happy  correction  of  that  error.  Who  shall  bemoan 
the  decay  of  Christian  heroism  when  for  Christ's  sake  educated 
young  women,  the  flower  of  our  colleges  and  homes,  are  ready 
to  go  into  the  exile  of  frontier  settlements,  braving  the  foul 
environment  which  polygamy  creates,  and  conquering  suspi- 
cion, intrigue  and  bravado  by  the  irresistible  appeal  of  an  un- 
selfish life,  the  very  copy  of  the  Master  ?  Such  examples  are 
worth  all  they  cost  as  tonic  to  the  faith  of  the  church.  They 
challenge  friendly  public  sentiment.  They  speak  home  to  the 
consciences  of  our  rulers  at  Washington,  where  the  signs  of 
sensibility  to  a  long-tolerated  crime  against  Christian  civiliza- 
tion were  never  so  many  and  encouraging  as  now.  Christian- 
ity, the  missionary  religion,  America,  the  missionary  nation, 
are  correlated  ideas  that  ought  somehow  to  be  burned  into  the 
intelligence  and  conscience  of  the  youth  of  our  churches,  as 
the  coloring  of  the  decorator  is  fixed  upon  the  wares'of  the 


potter  in  the  fierce  heat  of  the  furnace.  The  test  of  vitality  in 
a  church  is  the  intensity,  the  range  of  its  forth-putting  philan- 
thropies. Says  Lecky  :  "  If  it  be  true  Christianity  to  dive 
with  a  passionate  charity  into  the  darkest  recesses  of  vice,  to 
irrigate  every  quarter  of  the  earth  with  the  fertilizing  stream 
of  an  almost  boundless  benevolence,  to  include  all  the  sections 
of  humanity  in  the  circle  of  an  intense  and  efficacious  sympa- 
thy,' then,  never  since  the  days  of  the  Apostles  has  it  been  so 
healthy  and  vigorous  as  at  present."  So  acute  an  observer  as 
Max  Miiller  puts  Christianity  first  of  the  three  missionary  re- 
ligions, and  finds  the  key  of  its  success  in  "  the  degree  to  which 
our  love  of  God  is  manifested  incur  love  of  man.  That  is  the 
gospel  that  will  conquer  all  other  religions  because  it  will  win 
the  hearts  of  all  men."  Such  testimony  from  such  sources  is 
bracing  to  our  courage  ;  but  the  concrete  examples  of  the  power 
of  the  Christian  teacher  to  overcome  prejudice,  to  gain  the 
hearts  of  fanatical  enemies  which  this  Commission  furnishes, 
are  better  backing  for  our  faith  in  the  sufficiency  of  the  Chris- 
tian religion  than  anything  else.  The  argument  of  success- 
fully applied  Christianity  never  fails  to  convince  doubters. 
Whenever  it  meets  the  sins  that  cramp  the  individual  and 
pollute  society  with  effectual  remedies,  when  it  so  lets  in  the 
light  as  to  lay  the  ghosts  of  superstition  and  set  the  people  for- 
ward upon  a  better  future,  it  still  bears  the  mint-marks  of  its 
genuineness.  Why  did  slavery  die  when  it  did  ?  Not  alone 
because  there  were  "  thinking  bayonets"  in  the  conflict ;  but 
more,  because  that  system  could  not  longer  survive  the  clari- 
fied and  quickened  conscience  of  so  many  people  just  emerg- 
ing from  the  religious  revivals  that  form  the  prelude  of  its 
downfall.  Just  so,  social  evils  remaining  among  us  are,  one 
by  one,  being  made  aware  of  some  omnipresent  force  antago- 
nizing their  spread.  Analyze  the  influence,  and  it  invariably 
proves  to  be  some  one  of  the  allotropic  forms  of  Christianity. 
Here  it  is  pitted  against  the  saloon ;  there  it  confronts  social- 
ism ;  there  literary  and  pictorial  leprosy  ;  there  the  perversion 
of  the  Lord's  day ;  and  finally,  it  offers  its  peaceful  offices  as 
trustworthy  arbitrator  between  the  angry  competitors,  labor 
and  capital. 


Applied  Christianity  is  the  only  thing  holding  out  a  ray 
of  reasonable  hope  for  the  successful  treatment  of  these  and 
like  ugly  problems  now  coming  to  the  front.  It  is  an  old  and 
tried  solvent  of  hard  questions,  and  fully  equal,  we  doubt  not, 
to  its  present  task.  The  Mormon  iniquity  is  better  understood 
now  than  it  was  when  this  society  began  seriously  to  deal  with 
it  six  years  ago.  Some  facts  but  lately  ascertained  and  not 
yet  generally  noticed  may  well  challenge  special  attention. 

I.  MORMONISM  IS  THOROUGHLY  POSSESSED  WITH  THE  MIS- 
SIONARY IDEA.  It  proposes  to  convert  the  Gentiles,  and  is  doing 
this  with  astonishing  success.  It  is  clearly  within  Max  Mutter's 
famous  definition  of  a  "  living  religion,"  viz.:  Systematic  self- 
propagation.  With  three  other  old  and  still  aggressive  faiths, 
this  "  Latter  Day  Sainthood"  aspires  to  dominion.  "  This  fea- 
ture differences  it  from  all  other  organized  systems  of  evil  that 
taint  our  civilization.  We  are  but  just  beginning  to  make  note 
of  the  far  reaching,  intense  propaganda  of  the  Mormon  church. 
The  American  Board,  just  entering  the  last  quarter  of  its  first 
century  of  luminous  history,  has  but  422  missionaries  of  both 
sexes  sent  abroad ;  and  its  whole  force  of  laborers,  including 
native  converts,  numbers  only  2,600.  The  Mohammedan 
missionaries  in  the  training  school  at  Cairo,  as  Dr.  Field 
informs  us,  are  not  less  than  ten  thousand.  He  says  he  saw 
two  solid  acres  of  turbans  sitting  on  the  ground  delving  into 
the  mysteries  of  the  Koran. 

Mormonism  was  unheard  of  till  1827.  Its  lewd  founder 
did  not  attempt  to  formulate  his  own  morals  into  the  alleged 
revelation  of  polygamy  till  1843.  Besides,  this  church  has 
been  forced  back  by  a  better  social  environment  from  one  po- 
sition to  another,  till  it  made  a  stand  forty  years  ago  in  the 
solitude  of  the  vast  region  beyond  the  Rockies.  That  pathetic 
migration  was  borne  with  a  heroism  worthy  of  a  better  cause. 
Entering  Utah  with  six  thousand  jaded  pilgrims,  two  score 
years  ago,  that  social  monstrosity  has  steadily  grown  till  it 
now  numbers  150,000.  And  they  are  pushing  their  new  set- 
tlements into  every  choice  locality  with  a  vigor  and  industry 
never  so  intense  as  at  this  moment.  With  these  facts  before 


us,  it  ill  becomes  us  to  dwarf  our  estimate  of  the  dimensions  of 
the  Mormon  menace.  It  is  large  enough  to  be  seen  across 
the  continent  by  any  open-eyed  patriot.  If  we  have  any  Chris- 
tian steel  about  us,  here  is  an  enemy  worthy  of  it.  Look  at 
this  treasonable,  fraudulent  system,  palmed  off  on  the  credu- 
lous by  cunning  leaders,  directing  a  vast  scheme  of  coloniza- 
tion on  the  public  lands,  sustained  by  a  steady  influx  of  con- 
verts from  the  peasantry  and  hopeless  artizans  of  other  coun- 
tries. Is  not  the  problem  forced  upon  us  by  the  Mormon 
church  too  large,  complex  and  serious  to  be  lightly  put  aside 
or  treated  as  a  trifling  local  blemish  that  will  cure  itself  if  left 
unmolested? 

The  abnormal  fertility  of  the  Mormon  household  aug- 
mented by  the  stream  of  converts  flowing  into  the  New  West 
from  the  missionary  zeal  of  two  thousand  trained  apostles,  has 
peopled  the  Mormon  region  ten  times  as  fast  as  the  average 
increase  of  the  country  at  large.  Can  we  who  see  this  thrifty 
iniquity,  note  its  defiant  tone  and  treasonable  attitude  towards 
the  government,  as  well  as  the  social  evils  clustering  about  it, 
yet  refuse  our  utmost  endeavor  to  bar  its  farther  development  ? 
Another  motive  calling  us  to  antagonize  the  Mormon  menace 
with  the  Christian  school  is, 

2.  THE  MISSIONARY  TYPE  OF  AMERICAN  CHRISTIANITY 
WILL  BE  SO  FAR  .DISCREDITED  AS  WE  NEGLECT  TO  PUSH  FOR- 
WARD THIS  WORK.  We  are  constantly  affirming  the  effi- 
cacy of  the  gospel  to  supplant  delusions,  overcome  error 
and  make  society  morally  wholesome.  But  we  magnify 
its  far  away  successes  to  the  disadvantage  of  results  nearer 
home.  We  point  with  just  satisfaction  to  the  Christian  trans- 
formation now  in  progress  in  Japan ;  to  great  churches  reju- 
venated in  the  old  cities  of  the  East;  to  distant  islands  where 
improved  morals  and  intellectual  awakening  bear  testimony  to 
the  work  of  some  of  the  best  spirits  our  churches  have  pro- 
duced. These  remote  triumphs  are  most  encouraging. 

But  one  of  the  living  seers  of  our  Zion  has  lately  told  us 
that  "  no  great  lift  to  the  foreign  work  can  be  expected  till  we 
make  the  Gospel  more  widely  and  deeply  felt  in  this  country." 


There  is  no  reason  for  our  apparent  preference  to  attack 
the  enemy  at  long  range  if  we  have  entire  confidence  in  our 
superiority  to  him  in  close  quarters.  Why  not  meet  this  iniquity 
on  our  own  soil  with  the  same  expectancy  of  success  that 
we  all  feel  for  our  evangelical  work  in  India  or  Japan?  The  pres- 
tige of  American  missions  abroad  is  admitted.  The  stars  and 
stripes  stand  for  freedom  wherever  seen ;  they  are  the  accepted 
sign  of  popular  intelligence,  domestic  sanctity  and  pure  moral- 
ity which  our  proclaimed  Christianity  is  believed  to  securte. 
We  have  everything  at  stake  in  deserving  the  high  estimate 
put  upon  our  religion  by  other  nations,  while  their  out- reaching 
millions  are  solemnly  concerned  in  the  vigor  and  breadth  of 
the  grip  which  our  intelligent  piety  has  upon  our  whole  country. 
It  is  grateful  to  our  feelings  to  be  quoted  as  furnishing  models 
of  Christian  institutions  to  the  rising  states  of  the  old  world. 
But  when  the  blot  of  Mormonism  is  discovered  who  will  re- 
spect the  model?  How  this  tolerated  disgrace  breaks  the  force 
of  the  appeal  we  might  otherwise  make  to  emulate  our  exam- 
ple !  When  we  criticise  the  morals  of  the  heathen  they  can 
properly  turn  upon  us  with  the  biting  retort,  "  Physician,  heal 
thyself."  "  Let  him  who  is  without  sin  among  you  cast  the  first 
stone."  The  Zulu,  enriching  his  Kraal  by  the  purchase  of  as  many 
wives  as  his  lust  might  suggest  and  his  means  allow,  has  made 
no  fruitless  appeal  for  the  missionary  of  the  Gospel  that  builds 
domestic  morality  on  the  holy  union  of  one  man  and  one  woman. 
The  patriarch*  of  the  mission  that  has  lifted  the  Zulu  into 
the  field  of  European  politics  is  still  alive.  Is  polygamy  in 
Salt  Lake  less  odious,  or  degrading,  or  sinful,  than  in  Africa? 
Does  it  improve  upon  nearer  inspection  and  the  comparative 
ease  with  which  we  can  reach  and  cure  it? 

The  same  loveless  marriages,  only  more  debasing  by  the 
woman's  servitude  to  her  master  in  the  mask  of  a  saint;  the 
same  unnatural  crimes  against  the  family  that  have  made  the 
appeal  for  missionaries  to  the  "Dark  Continent"  heard  by 
some  of  the  choice  youth  of  our  churches,  exist  but  a  little  dis- 
tance hence.  Ours  is  the  social  blot  which  stands  out,  as  it 

*  Rev.  ALDEN  GROUT. 


ought,  only  more  black  and  sharply  outlined  by  contrast  with 
the  intense  light  of  Christian  civilization  upon  which  it  has 
fallen.  Shall  the  cry  of  our  own  land  go  unheeded?  The 
most  needful  thing  suggested  by  the  situation  in  the  New  West 
is  intensified  sensibility  to  the  large  demand  upon  us  for  Chris- 
tian helpfulness  from  the  blighted  heart  of  our  own  continent. 
But  Mormonism,  tolerated  and  thrifty  here,  not  only  tends  to 
neutralize  our  Christianity  abroad,  but, 

3.       IT    BREAKS    THE    FORCE   OF    OUR    CHRISTIAN    REACTION 
ALIKE    UPON   THE    FOREIGN    PEOPLES  ALREADY   HERE    AND  THOSE 

STILL  POURING  IN  UPON  us.  Never,  since  the  tidal  wave  of  north- 
ern tribes  broke  over  southern  Europe  and  shattered  the  empire 
of  Caesar,  has  the  passion  for  migration  been  so  phenomenal  as 
of  late  ;  and  America  is  the  point  to  ward  which,  year  after  year, 
this  mighty  drift  sets.  I  am  bringing  no  news  in  this  state- 
ment to  a  city  four-fifths  of  whose  entire  population  are  essen- 
tially foreign.  But  you  only  index  the  broader  problem  given 
us  in  the  east  as  truly  as  on  the  spacious  frontier  opening  in 
the  west.  How  assimilate  to  the  American  type  this  vast  con- 
stituent of  alien  people?  That  type,  as  seen  in  our  history 
has  Christianity,  home,  intelligence,  freedom  as  its  outline  fea- 
tures. Whatever  makes  against  these  in  any  part  of  our 
country  so  far  weakens  our  proper  influence  upon  the  incoming 
stranger.  Mormonism  is  in  open  revolt  with  every  one  ot 
these  American  ideas.  Tolerated  on  the  public  lands  ;  pre- 
empting, as  it  is  rapidly  doing,  future  states,  the  home  of  mil- 
lions of  our  immigrant  citizens,  it  thwarts  by  its  presence  on 
the  ground  in  advance  those  social  and  religious  beginnings 
which  ensure  safe  citizens  in  after  years.  The  original  stamp 
set  upon  a  town  by  its  founders  has  strange  tenacity.  The 
materials,  when  plastic,  may  be  shaped  at  will  by  a  strong 
hand  in  new  communities;  but  when  once  fixed,  the  existing 
order  defies  change.  It  has  to  be  broken  up  and  recast  in  the 
heat  of  some  reform  before  which  nothing  but  the  materials  of 
society  survive.  The  awakened  interest  now  showing  itself 
touching  our  foreign-born  population  is  auspicious  though 
tardy.  Our  first  duty  to  them  is  to  rid  the  country  they  seek 


10 

of  its  clinging  corruptions.  Disinfect  the  mephitic  air  of  cities  ; 
make  polygamy  odious  in  the  New  West;  meet  those  escaping 
from  a  hard  lot  in  other  lands  with  a  better  environment.  As 
it  now  is,  the  moral  conditions  of  the  New  West  are  unwhole- 
some for  the  settler. 

Like  a  malarious  marshy  region  that  must  be  ditched 
to  relieve  it  of  its  stagnant  water  before  people  can  fix  their 
homes  there  and  live,  so  every  spot  tainted  with  the  presence 
of  Mormonism  needs  the  timely  improvement  of  the  Christian 
school  before  it  is  fit  for  a  home  for  any  one,  especially  the  for- 
eigner during  the  transition  period.  The  best  stock  may  lack 
sufficient  sturdiness  to  bear  transplanting  when  the  ground  and 
exposure  are  favorable.  What  issue  may  we  fairly  expect 
where  the  stock  is  poor,  the  ground  steeped  in  stagnant  water 
or  full  of  foul  seed  in  advance?  A  family  of  paupers  from  the 
work-house,  upon  whom  the  gates  of  Castle  Garden  had  been 
shut,  dropped  by  the  returning  steamer  and  huddling  on  the 
dock  of  an  Irish  port,  is  the  most  pathetic  picture  of  our  first 
parents  expelled  from  Paradise  I  have  ever  seen.  There  is  a 
strange  fascination  in  America  for  the  poor,  the  hopeless, 
the  discontented.  Nothing  is  likely  to  turn  back  this 
mighty  throng,  with  their  faces  set  westward.  With  how 
many  of  them  the  disenchantment  comes  too  late  for  retreat. 
Certainly  it  is  .so  in  the  case  of  every  woman  who  has  been 
caught  in  the  toils  of  the  wily  Mormon.  Unless  these  strangers 
are  met  on  their  arrival  here  with  Christian  ideals,  with  in- 
fluences issuing  from  school  and  church,  they  may  turn  a 
possible  paradise  into  a  moral  pandemonium.  How  can  we 
approach  the  immigrant,  of  whatever  country,  with  a  consistent 
appeal  to  him  to  slough  off  his  old  world  vices  and  become  an 
,  American,  when  that  word  covers  so  gigantic  a  sin,  so  impu- 
dent a  fraud,  as  Mormonism?  Evidently  our  powers  of  na- 
tional assimilation  are  weakened  to  the  extent  that  this  iniquity 
goes  unrebuked  or  is  suffered  to  enlarge  its  dimensions. 

I  do  not  think  it  strange,  when  we  recall  the  Divine  method 
of  dealing  with  great  social  wrongs,  that  this  Mormon  problem 
is  laid  at  the  doors  of  the  American  people  with  such  urgent 
seriousness  as  it  is  now  taking  on.  The  whole  question  of  the 


11 

family  is  wrapped  up  in  it.  The  bold,  aggressive  attitude  01 
slavery  a  quarter  of  a  century  ago  unmasked  its  real  character 
and  fairly  forced  the  government  to  strangle  it.  Mormonism, 
in  the  same  way,  is  unwittingly  digging  its  own  grave.  It  is 
so  shocking  the  moral  sense  of  the  people  that  the  safety  of 
the  family  as  the  true  social  unit  is  likely  to  be  more  sacredly 
regarded.  In  the  glare  of  recent  divorce  legislation  and  other 
symptomatic  phenomena,  who  can  doubt  that  a  strong  under- 
tow is  driving  the  American  family  away  from  its  only  safe 
moorings,  the  Biblical  idea?  The  Mormon  menace  is  already 
setting  the  thoughtful  upon  fresh  investigations.  It  is  making 
its  mischiefs  apparent  to  courts  and  senates  and  churches,  and 
the  outraged  heart  of  Christian  women  in  every  State,  and 
the  uprising  against  it  will  be  as  general  as  the  light  revealing 
its  repulsiveness  becomes  intense.  Polygamy  as  against  the 
Christian  family  is  the  issue  presented  at  the  center  of  Ameri- 
can civilization  in  the  near  future.  The  world  is  making  note 
of  the  ghastly  experiment.  Is  it  not  strange  that  we  who  have 
so  much  at  stake  should  be  so  little  concerned  for  the  result? 
This  modern  effort  to  fasten  the  old  curse  of  polygamy  on  the 
new  world  will  not  be  suffered  to  succeed.  But  its  defeat  is  no 
easy  task.  Such  sins  die  hard.  The  expulsive  power*of  a 
stronger  force  for  good  is  the  only  sufficient  social  renovator- 
The  world's  moral  memory  needs  to  be  refreshed  occasionally. 
The  woes  which  Old  Testament  polygamy  uniformly  let  loose 
upon  families  and  states  have  been  too  much  overlooked. 
Scholars  have  ceased  to  note,  as  they  should,  the  awful  pun- 
ishment of  domestic  pollution  speaking  its  warnings  from  the 
pages  of  the  old  Greek  tragedies.  The  protest  of  the  mediae- 
val church  against  the  Mohammedan  harem  seems  to  have  lost 
its  force  as  against  the  sin  of  our  age  and  country.  Has  not 
the  Mormon  menace  a  manifest  mission?  It  is  here  to  chal- 
lenge by  its  defiant  attitude  the  vigorous  antagonism  of  the 
church  and  the  nation.  With  its  burning  shame  so  near  us  as 
to  scorch  our  eyeballs,  what  excuse  can  we  plead  for  our  in- 
.  difference  to  this  standing  outrage  upon  the  Christian  law  of 
the  family?  The  logical  end  of  our  fast  and  loose  habits 
touching  the  national  regard  for  that  law  is  so  manifest  that 


12 

none  but  the  blind  fail  to  see  it.  It  is  written  in  the  dejected 
face  of  every  wife  that  has  had  to  endure  the  crucifixion  of  be- 
ing compelled  to  share  with  a  another  what  God  intended  not 
to  be  divided.  It  blights  every  fine  feeling  and  smothers 
hope  wherever  it  lays  its  hand.  It  is  the  subtle  net-work  that 
has  enmeshed  thousands  of  the  daughters  from  lowly  families 
across  the  sea  and  finally  dragged  them  to  a  fate  worse  than 
death.  Such  are  some  of  the  counts  in  the  heavy  indictment 
upon  which  polygamy  stands  convicted.  Another  aspect  of 
the  menace  which  Mormonism  offers  is, 

4.    ITS  INTENSE  DISLOYALTY   TO  THE  FEDERAL  GOVERNMENT. 

It  takes  no  pains  to  disguise  its  hostile  attitude.  Citizenship  de- 
mands at  least  some  elementary  knowledge  of  our  laws  and  the 
rulers  whom  the  people  elect.  Mormonism  leaves  its  swarms 
of  children  in  dense  ignorance  upon  all  points  touching  the 
extra  priestly  government  under  which  they  live;  nay,  it 
takes  pains  to  embitter  their  youth  with  a  hatred  towards  it 
that  will  be  hard  to  unlearn.  Their  temples  are  seminaries  of 
treason.  They  have  repeatedly  insulted  the  flag.  Church 
tithes  are  the  only  taxes  they  willingly  pay.  The  presence  of 
the  army  awes  them  into  outward  submission,  but  there  is  no 
evidence  of  a  spark  of  loyal  sentiment  among  them.  Just  now 
the  dockets  of  the  federal  courts  are  growing  bulky  with  cases 
against  polygamists.  Active  enforcement  of  the  laws  is  filling 
the  jails  or  hurrying  socalled  saints  away  from  home  on  other 
than  missionary  journeys,  while  the  cry  of  persecution  echoes 
drearily  from  the  Mormon  press  and  platform.  But  we 
mistake  if  we  imagine  that  soldiers  and  courts  can  cure  the 
plague  of  the  New  West.  Law  when  enforced  leaves  the  evil 
spirit  still  in  possession.  What  Utah  needs  is  light  and 
grace  and  social  purity.  The  Christian  school,  not  the  courts, 
is  the  source  of  these.  The  law  is  only  a  sturdy  school- 
master necessary  to  hold  the  unwhipped  boy  in  decent  restraint 
till  the  value  of  study,  order  and  ideas  comes  in  to  assert  its 
control.  That  process  is  and  must  be  a  growth  requiring 
time.  Our  New  West  scheme  of  education  puts  a  knowledge 
of  the  government,  respect  for  the  authority  represented  by 


13 

the  Stars  and  Stripes  among  its  primary  lessons.  A  single 
brave  young  woman,  fresh  from  her  Normal  School  train- 
ing, with  the  spirit  of  her  Christian  home  and  church 
as  her  inspiration  and  leader,  finds  herself  at  the  head 
of  a  little  school  in  one  of  the  farming  valleys  of  Utah. 
Remote  from  the  intenser  Mormon  feeling  that  rules  at 
Salt  Lake,  the  contagion  of  this  teacher's  spirit  won  the 
people's  hearts.  Their  interest  soon  took  shape  in  a  school 
house  of  logs,  built  and  rudely  fitted  up  by  their  con- 
tributed labor  in  the  canyon  or  on  the  school  edifice.  Such 
utter  lack  of  knowledge  was  there  in  that  valley,  of  any 
authority  beyond  that  of  Mormon  officials,  that  the  idea  of 
"our  beautiful  .flag  as  an  object  lesson,"  flashed  into  the 
teacher's  mind.  It  took  wings  and  flew  eastward.  The 
response  was  immediate.  A  good  old  Dane  brings  a  tall, 
straight  cedar  from  the  canyon  and  sets  it  near  the  free  school. 
A  woman's  deft  hand  shapes  the  simple  gear  for  raising  the 
new  first  flag  of  the  town.  To  the  country  folk  present  it  was 
a  unique  occasion.  Lusty  cheers  greeted  the  ensign  as  it 
mounted  to  its  place,  flinging  off  its  prophecy  of  a  better  day 
from  its  fresh  starry  folds.  And  there  it  has  been  teaching  its 
mute  lesson  ever  since.  And  the  teacher's  heart  is  glad  over 
her  two  years'  service,  and  the  women  of  the  church  in  the 
old  Bay  State  who  paid  her  salary  and  are  still  taking  care  of 
her  successor  are  well  satisfied  that  they  have  never  invested 
more  wisely  in  any  work  for  our  country  or  the  Master's 
kingdom.  Multiply  such  centres  of  influence  by  the  number 
of  our  schools,  now  scarcely  less  than  forty,  infuse  a  like  les- 
son of  patriotism  and  keep  it  alive  by  daily  allusions  before 
the  almost  three  thousand  pupils  now  in  attendance,  and  it  is 
plain  that  we  have  at  least  made  a  hopeful  beginning  in  breaking 
down  the  disloyalty  that  separates  the  Mormon  from  his 
country  as  by  a  wall  of  granite.  \ 

But  while  we  aim  to  plant  the  New  West  with  schools  of 
loyalty,  we  must  not  seem  to  neglect  the  Christian  character  of 
our  work.  These  schools  are  and  must  be  Christian  schools, 
taught  by  select  Christian  men  and  women,  or  they  are  noth- 
ing to  the  purpose. 


14 

This  idea  must  be  held  to  with  the  most  rigorous  insist- 
ance.  Our  teachers  are  as  truly  missionaries  of  Christ's  Gos- 
pel as  if  engaged  in  planting  churches.  The  only  difference 
is,  the  school  is  the  clearance  of  the  ground,  the  creation  of 
materials  without  which  it  is  impossible  to  have  a  church  such 
as  Christ  intends.  Close  upon  the  track  of  the  teacher  must 
come  the  church,  the  natural  successor,  calling  for  the  pastoral 
nurture  of  some  of  the  best  men  our  seminaries  can  produce. 
It  is  a  delusion  to  think  that  this  work,  so  well  begun  by 
women,  can  be  pushed  to  its  proper  issue  by  them.  The 
moral  renovation  of  the  New  West  calls  for  men  qualified  to 
deal  with  the  practical  problems  that  arise  wherever  organized 
Christian  society  is  emerging  from  barbarism.  The  home  mis- 
sionary pastor  must  speedily  lay  his  hand  upon  the  elements 
vitalized  by  the  free  school,  mould  them  into  churches,  nor 
take  off  his  steadying  hold  till  intelligent  piety  secures  them 
against  falling  under  the  sway  of  delusions  and  vices  that  must 
lon^  haunt  such  communities.  Unless  we  make  vigorous 
church-life  the  dominant  force  at  every  point  we  are  occupy- 
ing, we  shall  see  painful  relapses  into  their  old  ways  among 
supposed  converts.  Sabbath  schools,  connected  as  they  are 
with  all  our  day  schools,  do  much  in  the  right  spiritual  direc- 
tion ;  but  the  goal  is  not  reached  till  the  church  comes  forth 
with  its  diversified  ministries  to  gather  up  and  express  the 
best  religious  life  of  the  people, 

Speaking  for  the  churches  of  the  East,  which  have  in  un- 
mistakable ways  shown  their  interest  in  the  work  you  were 
the  first  to  attempt,  I  do  not  hesitate  to  say  that,  with  our 
outlook, 

5.  CHICAGO  is  THE  STRATEGIC  POINT  FROM  WHICH  TO  OPER- 
ATE AGAINST  THE  MORMON  MENACE.  The  missionary  societies 
that  originated  long  before  this  city  of  majestic  growth  was  born, 
still  keep  their  headquarters  in  the  East  where  the  revenues 
have  been  so  largely  provided.  It  was  but  fitting  and  natural 
that  your  noble  scheme  for  the  redemption  of  the  New  West 
should  domesticate  itself  here.  The  goodly  child  is  yours. 
But  we  of  the  older  states  crave  a  share  in  the  maintenance  of 


15 

it.     No  monopoly  of  so  grand  and  national  a  work  as  is  pro- 
posed will   be  permitted  by  the  New  England  brethren.     We 
expect  to  be   distanced  ere   long  by  others  more  richly  en- 
dowed with  the  sinews  of  this  holy   war,  but  for  the   present 
we  shall  continue  to  place  our  youthful   ally  side  by  side  with 
the  old  and  tried  agencies  for  the  Christianization  of  our  land. 
Chicago   is   nearer  to   the  field  covered  by  our  schools  than 
Boston   by  a   thousand   miles.     The  base   of  supplies,  com- 
mander's headquarters,  should  not  be  too  far  from  the  fight- 
ing.    Out  of  the  fierce  struggle  you  are  making  with  the  prin- 
cipalities and  powers  of  evil   at  your  own  doors  is  born  the 
capacity  for  this  frontier  war  with  fanaticism.     The  atmosphere 
of  your  churches,  surcharged  with  city  missionary  enterprise, 
is  favorable  to  the  entertainment  of  broader  plans  such  as  fall 
within  the  scope  of  our  present  thought.    The  laymen  of  these 
strong  city  churches  need  to  have  some  great  Christian  task 
constantly  in  hand  to  preserve  the  proper  harmony  of  their 
religious   and   everyday  life.     What  vast   operations   are  the 
business  men  of  this  city  accustomed  to,  affecting,  as  they  do, 
the  market  of  the  great  staples  of  living  throughout  the  world  ! 
Your  merchants  touch  the  nerve-center  of  prices  for  bread  and 
meat  everywhere.     Nothing  petty  in  plan  or  timid  in  purpose 
where  Christ's  kingdom  is  concerned  ought  to  be  tolerated  by 
men  trained  and  broadened  by  such  affairs.     One  conspicuous 
loss  from  its  councils  is  felt  by  our  society  as  it  takes  up  the 
work  of  another  year.     Where  from  among  our  best  are  the 
successors  of  our  lamented  leader,  Colonel  Hammond?    When 
that  princely  Christian  used  to  look  afar,  across  the  rivers  and 
the  Rockies,  note  the  trend  of  travel  and  the  dim  outlines  of 
emerging  States,  his  thought  took  in  other  than  railroad  prob- 
lems.    His   soul  was   filled  with  just  anxiety  as   he  became 
aware  of  the  loathsome  efflux  which  Mormonism  was  disgorg- 
ing upon  broad  areas  of  the  territorial  lands.     How  grandly 
he  tried  to  stay  the  spread  of  it,  every  page  of  our  society's 
history  bears  record.     The  workers  fall,  but  the  work  presses 
never  so  urgently  as  now,  and  all  the  omens  are  auspicious  in 
every  direction  except  that  it  is  feared  that  the  young  men  of 
the  churches  who  have  most  at  stake  do  not  grasp  the  situa- 


16 

tion  so  as  to  take  determined  hold  of  the  work  to  be  done.  It 
is  a  serious  question  for  every  coming  citizen  to  ponder  how 
long  we  can  safely  go  on  begetting  towns  and  states  with  the 
birth-mark  of  polygamy  upon  them.  There  is  a  kind  of  en- 
couragement in  the  daily  reports  of  the  press  that  prominent 
Mormons  are  being  convicted  of  their  crimes  and  the  full  pen- 
alty of  the  law  is  enforced.  Outraged  public  sentiment 
is  at  last  expressing  itself,  and  no  mask  of  religion  will  in  future 
avail  to  cover  offenders  from  the  resentment  which  has  been 
aroused.  The  conflict  this  fanatical  despotism,  backed  by  so 
much  ignorance,  is  prepared  to  make  against  the  laws  is  likely 
to  be  a  long  one. 

The  hands  of  the  Congressional  Commission  now  in 
power  in  Utah  deserve  the  cordial  support  of  the  country. 
May  not  Mormon  operations  to  make  converts  abroad  be 
crippled  if  not  thwarted  by  special  instructions  to  our  embassa- 
dors  in  foreign  parts  to  exercise  cautionary  measures?  Should 
not  a  friendly  warning  be  sent  out  to  those  countries  where 
the  intrigue  for  converts  is  most  practiced  ?  But  against  the 
great  and  growing  mass  of  ignorance  and  evil  in  the  New 
West  we  are  still  obliged  to  turn  for  help  to  this  Commission. 
It  has  but  a  brief  history ;  but  its  facilities  and  prestige  based 
upon  actual  results  accomplished  put  us  easily  at  the  front 
among  the  recognized  forces  now  antagonizing  the  Mormon 
menace.  So  the  platform  and  the  press  of  America  understand 
and  express  it ;  while  observers  on  the  ground  confirm  the 
same  view. 

As  we  now  see  how  Whitman's  missionary  inspiration 
was  God's  method  of  saving  to  the  United  States  the  whole 
Pacific  Slope,  a  vast  empire  covering  unbounded  wealth  in 
forest,  soil  and  mine,  so  the  pioneers  and  supporters  of  this 
New  West  Commission  seem  likely  to  prove  the  real  deliverers 
of  a  great  cluster  okinterior  states  from  the  shackles  of  priestly 
tyranny  and  the  abiding  blight  of  deified  sensuality. 


